As we learn more about the world around ancient Israel, the more we understand the writings of the prophets and apostles.

This week, we look at Psalms 22 through 24, which prophesy not only the Messiah’s coming, but his return as well. And it appears that the Valley of the Shadow of Death was not just a metaphor, but an actual place connected to the war of God and Magog—and the Battle of Armageddon.

We continue our study of Isaiah with a discussion of destruction of Leviathan and how the prophet borrowed his description of the chaos-dragon from the Baal Cycle.

We also discuss related passages in Micah 1, Psalm 23 and 24, and chapter 37 of Ezekiel, whose description of reanimated “dry bones” may be a specific reference to the ancient kingdom of Bashan, which, we are learning, was a giant necropolis at the base of Mount Hermon.

Isaiah prophesied the future destruction of the Rephaim—the demon spirits of the Nephilim—and possibly their angelic parents as well.

We continue our study of Isaiah, focusing on chapter 26 verses 13 through 19. The “shades” of verse 14 and “dead” of verse 19 are translated from the Hebrew word rephaim, which scholars have only begun to realize within the last forty years should be a proper name and not a term for human dead.

We discuss the significance of that shift in thinking and the implications for end times prophecy. Suddenly, Isaiah 26 is no longer a polemic about pagan kings who ruled over the Jews, but a prophecy of the final destruction of the Nephilim and the “sons of God” who created them.

The prophet Isaiah foretold a day when God would destroy Death. This doesn’t just mean the end of physical death, but the literal destruction of the death-god.

This entity was called Mot by the pagan Amorites, but you would know him better as the rider on the pale horse, Thanatos.

The Jewish New Year, which began Friday evening, is one of the times during the year that prophecy scholars believe could mark the Messiah’s return.

We also discuss the historic Abraham Accords, the peace agreement signed September 15, 2020 by Israel, Bahrain, and the United Emirates. Then we return to our study of Isaiah 24:21-23 and an overlooked prophecy of the ultimate destruction of the rebellious elohim worshiped as the gods of the nations.

Isaiah has a lot to say about the end times, and much of it is about God’s judgment on the supernatural entities who have rebelled against His authority.

This week, we look at Isaiah 24 and a verse that could point to God literally emptying out the netherworld, and passages that connect to verses in Isaiah 51, Job 41, and Psalm 47 that foretell God’s earth-shaking judgment on Leviathan, the chaos-dragon.

We dig deeper into the fifth trumpet judgment this week to explore the links between the locust-like creatures that fly out of the abyss and older stories from the Near East like the Epic of Gilgamesh and Inanna’s Descent to the Netherworld.

Then we compare the creatures from the bottomless pit to the apkallu of Mesopotamia, the Watchers of the Bible, and the Titans of Greek mythology, and conclude that they are one and the same.

With Revelation 9, we get into the real action that leads up to Armageddon. An angel fallen to Earth was given the key to the abyss, releasing the monstrous things that have been confined in the bottomless pit.

Who is that angel? Is he loyal to God? And what are those locust-like things? We discuss what we know from the Bible and compare that information with what the people of the ancient world believed about the old gods—the Titans, Watchers, and Mesopotamian apkallu.

The order of the first three trumpet judgments (hail and fire, a mountain hitting the sea, and Wormwood) roughly follow the sequence of the events of the Exodus—a plague of hail and fire, the parting of the sea, and the bitter waters at Marah.

We discuss the significance of the pattern, and consider whether President Trump’s new Space Force might be connected to the potentially hazardous asteroid Apophis that will make a near pass of Earth on April 13, 2029.

The third trumpet judgment causes a “great star” named Wormwood to fall from heaven, “blazing like a torch,” that poisons a third of the earth’s fresh water to become toxic.

Is it an asteroid or is this another supernatural entity tasked with delivering God’s judgment to an unrepentant world?